Confessions Of… Former Flight Attendants

Whether your guilty pleasure is stalking the #wanderlust hashtag on Instagram or you’ve just always idolised Zooey Deschanel's character in Almost Famous, chances are, you’ve daydreamed about being a flight attendant before. Even as air travel has lost much of its former lustre, it’s a career that still maintains an air of glamour, thanks to the cute uniforms, free flights, and sense of adventure.

And yet, as anyone who flies has probably observed, being in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly at 36,000 feet isn’t always easy. Or clean. Or even, to be honest, totally safe-feeling. How do we know? Well, we caught up with three former flight attendants to hear their wildest on-the-job tales. From a passenger who lit his hair on fire while smoking crack in the bathroom (seriously) to chance encounters with the rich and famous, these high-flying women have enough fodder to power a thousand cocktail party conversations. Perhaps that’s the real perk of the profession.